Elseworlds -- Arrowverse crossover

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Soooo, where's everyone at with the CW shows these days? Considering the regular conversations about them have ceased, it appears we've taken all we can take. I still tune in week-to-week out of habit and continually ask myself why.

Anyway, the yearly crossovers seem to be where the shows finally deliver on their promise of fun over-the-top superhero shenanigans. I should probably just stick to watching these crossover events each year. The season arcs are never anywhere near as satisfying.

Elseworlds part one was a ton of fun. My minor complaint is that I have no idea why they didn't go with a "Ollie is Flash and Barry is Green Arrow" premise over the unnecessarily convoluted "Ollie is literally Barry and Barry is literally Ollie" premise they went with.

As someone who remembers a time when the TV show Smallville was all we had to watch, I have foggy fond memories of the show. I should probably never go back and rewatch, as I'm sure even the things I remember liking are terrible. That said, the Smallville theme blaring as the crew went to the classic Smallville farm had me absolutely giddy. I enjoy the guy they have playing Superman. Still hoping they find a way to include some of the legit Smallville cast in the crossover somehow.

Seeing the Monitor was mind-boggling. Never did I believe there would come a day. So amazing. And we're going to Gotham next. Early glimpses at Batwoman have been promising.

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I've been watching only Arrow and Supergirl this fall, so I was debating whether or not I should watch this cross-over because of that. But I probably will, though it's next day viewing for me on these shows.

I've got tired of the ridiculous lazy writing coupled with incessant mopiness in The Flash. They all have lazy writing, to be sure, but The Flash is, imo, the worst.

Legends of Tomorrow was always turn off your brain and enjoy the silliness. But they got lazy with the characters. Last season's finale was dreadful not because of the giant Beebo vs. demon fight, but because of how they reduced some of the main characters to just cheerleaders, with nothing to do.

I was ready to give up on Arrow and Supergirl, too, but the current seasons showed promise, with some of the changes in status quo that had occurred. Oliver's prison arc was the most interesting part of Arrow so far, though Diaz is a pretty crappy villain.

While Supergirl is still full of silliness and lazily written scenes, the overall arc is much more interesting, and quite well written at times, touching heavily on today's issues. This is also in part thanks to a much better villain.

Edit: And I watched season 1 of Black Lightning, but decided to bail before its inevitable drop in quality. Thankfully it wasn't directly connected to the others.

I don't have high hopes for Batwoman, but we'll see.

Edited December 10, 2018 by Corvinus

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I'm a week behind currently. It's been a struggle this season. Currently most engaged with Supergirl, but that's largely for the promise of more Legion. Though, if I'm honest with myself, this is not a Legion that I really want to see.

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I would say that around 25 min of the ep were completly hilarious until oliver has his melt down and starts screaming at barry. And I really reeeeeaalllyyy mean hilarious!

the rest of the ep was the usual and I would love if we had Batman instead of batwoman today because the character means basically nothing to me. And after Gotham I don t even understand why they would create another show on the bat mithology that isn t about Batman.

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after the second ep I feel like this crossover is a bit of a let down compared with the others.

We don t have a big bad they are fighting nor really a crisis. It is mostly about oliver and barry having a body swap and the whole situation is actually funny instead of having the sense of a great crisis that we had in the previous crossovers.

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Whelp. I'm still firmly on board. I think, while there is some issues here and there overall, I think all four shows are enjoying a sense of resurgance. It's not perfect tv. But it is fun.

Part one if the crossover was solid gold. Part two was not as good, particularly that this was Gotham of Earth 1, yet Kara indicated her cousin knew Bruce? Of her world? She didn't seem to indicate that...

The continued Quantum Leap argument is great.

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I find Legends to be unwatchable. Text book example of a show "not meant for me." The irony is this appears to be the show finding its niche. Puppets. Unicorns. Stuff. It's constantly trying to do something more ridiculous than the prior week, and I honestly find it obnoxious.

The other shows are all on the same level to me:

I find Supergirl to be a little boring. I don't like how they're taking some of the more fantastic elements of the mythos and making them mundane. I love Brainiac. I'm enjoying his role. But I find the constant use of a human guise to be indicative of the show's problem. It feels regular. I don't want this show to feel regular.

The Flash does better with showcasing episodes that feel "special." I like the introduction of XS. That said, it tends to just do the same thing season after season, but I guess time travel is the show's mission statement. I'm just tired of Wells being reintroduced, more ridiculous than the last time, and I'm becoming bored with Flash's supporting cast.

Arrow is doing intriguing things this season. The show works best when Felicity and Ollie are as far removed from one another as possible. I enjoyed his stint in prison. Green Arrow now working with SCPD publicly opens up new opportunities for the show, and the future flashes are a nice changeup from the flashbacks.

I always seem to forget Black Lightning is a part of all this, and I'm not sure whether it's a strength or weakness of the show. Ultimately, I think the show suffers from lack of a compelling big bad. They're heaping all of this on Tobias's shoulders, and I just don't think he's strong enough to warrant all this time as the focal point for the heroes.

RE: Part two of the crossover, I was excited to see the Arrowverse's take on Gotham. I also thought they set up a compelling premise for the Batwoman show. You just know Batman is destined to appear on Batwoman at some point.

Edited December 11, 2018 by Bastard of Boston

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The humor in part 2 of this crossover continued to be the highlight. I loved Ollie refusing to believe Batman was real out of jealousy. First he puffs his chest when he meets Superman, and now this. The writers are subtly pitting up their original superhero, so to speak, against the 'big boys'.

Regarding Gotham City, I enjoyed the name drop of a bunch of Batman villains. Unfortunately, I wasn't impressed with Batwoman. It was fine on the action side, but Ruby Rose was extremely wooden. Not feeling optimistic about that show.

Also, I've no idea where this is all going, the crossover plot I mean, but right now this thing with Monitor testing the worlds feels very stupid. These episodes are reminding me why I gave up on The Flash, and no regrets there.

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I normally only watch Flash & Arrow... mainly because I watch a shit ton of TV... LoT doesn't work for me...and i never got around to watching Supergirl.... but the crossovers are fun.... but I will definately give Batwoman a shot... I always wondered why they avoided the names "Gotham", and "Wayne" like the plague... we've seen so many other DC /Justice league superheros... it never made sense to me...

... I also really dig Black Lightning....

.... the three remaining big names yet to be dropped on are Aquaman, WW, and Cyborg

Spoiler

I read somewhere that Diggle's mother's maiden name is probably Stewart... or maybe he'll find out that he was adopted.... or... because of the multi-verse, they'll just leave it as is.... or.... he'll never be GL on this show....lol

Edited December 12, 2018 by Martini Sigil

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The main thing I take away from this crossover is how badly I want a Superman show. Hoechlin does such a fantastic job in tonight's part three. It made me mildly annoyed at the device they used at the conclusion of the episode to explain away his impending absence.

All due respect to Melissa Benoist, who is an amazing Supergirl, but there will always be a part of me that resents Supergirl for making a Superman show more complicated. Though, Superman in space is a great premise to set it apart from Supergirl.

Hell, DC should just get over the movie issue and give us a World's Finest show starring both Superman AND Batman.

So...did Ollie just sacrifice his relationship with Felicity? God, I hope so.

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So...did Ollie just sacrifice his relationship with Felicity? God, I hope so.

Since season 4 when laurel died that people have been saying it should have been felicity.

I am sorry but she is like a cockroach that just doesn t go away.

And while supergirl has a mitology that can set her apart from superman I simply can t understand why someone would want to make a show about batwoman instead of Batman… That I simply just can t understand. If we are lucky fox might have a spin off of their series gotham but I doubt it.

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It's the weird film vs. television schism. For whatever reason, WB is content to half-ass television content as they continue to try and make their films work. I'm not sure what they think they're accomplishing. All of these "We're going to give you the thing you want, just not really" tactics are becoming tedious.

That Crisis tease for next year was pretty freaking great. My expectations are through the roof. I want to see Lynda Carter Wonder Woman...the characters from that horrible Birds of Prey show from the early 00s...definitely Tom Welling or Rosenbaum from Smallville...damn it, throw in some movie characters of yesteryear, like Chris O'Donnell as Robin or Alicia Silverstone's Batgirl. I want it all.

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The crossover was pretty fun, supergirl and barry taking the piss out of oliver was pretty funny. Wasnt all that impressed with batwoman but superman was pretty good.

Arrow has become my favourite of the CW shows again after a couple of really weak seasons which is a pretty good achievment given Diaz wasnt the greatest bad guy, Flash is very hit or miss at the moment and I dont watch Supergirl apart from the crossover episodes. Legends has kind of found its place in that it knows what show it is and has been allowed to embrace how rediculous it is and have a lot of fun. Most of all Legends found a place for Constantine, his show was awesome and its great that CW found a place for the actor in one of their other shows.

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So...did Ollie just sacrifice his relationship with Felicity? God, I hope so.

I'm guessing he offered his life in exchange for Kara and Barry's in the upcoming "Crisis" (the two did "die" in the comics version). If they're still taking a page from Batman who channels his pain in order to remain Batman and Ollie is giving that up for real, then maybe they're completing his character arc and finishing up Arrow next season.

If that is the case, I'm hoping somebody else can throw comments at Barry like how he can't get by for long without a sappy motivational speech.

I'm also guessing that like comic Crisis, they'll be integrating all their Earths into one , or at least, Flashy's and Supergirl's.

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That's a hell of a tease for 2019...how do they let it hang there for 6+ months? Do they contjnue to throw stingers with references to it? How do they do it in only three or four episodes (since I can't see them excluding Legends for it)...? Do they finally pull Black Lightning in somehow? So much stuff...can't wait...

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I'm hoping the fact that they're teasing it so far in advance means that they're taking a movie-like approach. Meaning, this won't be a quick/rushed shoot. I hope it means they're writing the script now and lining up an extensive list of characters they plan to use, including ironing out cameos by famous DC TV shows of yesteryear.